Stuck on Setting Date and Time

I found out that the apple TV could not resolve the IP address of the time server "time.apple.com" so was unable to set the time/date on boot up.

To find this out I logged into the Apple TV from a terminal window on my MAC

ssh root@apple-tv.local

password:

Apple-TV:# cd /var/log

Apple-TV:# tail syslog

This shows the following error being written repeatedly

Apple-TV ntpd_intres[47]: getaddrinfo('time.apple.com','(null)') returned EAI_NONAME, mapping to EAI_AGAIN

So I changed the configuration of the NTPD process to use a host name where the IP address could be resolved.

I tested the IP address resolution from a MAC terminal window using the command "nslookup hostname" which returns an IP address where it did not for "time.apple.com" and where it did for the name used below. You need to find out what NTP is good to use in your region.

The NTPD time server configuration is stored in the following file

Apple-TV:#cd /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences

Apple-TV:# cat ntp.conf

server time.apple.com

To change the contents I did this

Apple-TV:# echo "server au.pool.ntp.org" > ntp.conf

That is it.

Unplug the apple TV and then power it up again and all should be good.

Apple use different timeservers in different regions. During setup, the region and timezone need to be set consistent with the actual location. That might have saved you this elaborate workaround. Just to help other users, you should mention the version of your ATV and whether it is jailbroken.

Some routers or provides has blocked the ports that are important to apple tv do this configuration.

After days and many configurations, I have sucessful doing a simple thing.

I decided to connect to internet by routing my cellphone and "Bingo" the Apple TV get the information and everything is working well now. Good luck for all.